How to hold or should Brett Kavanaugh be held accountable for behavior when he was 17 is a question we all should be concerned about. Not only because he may well be the next Supreme Court Justice, but also because questions of holding young people accountable are of utmost importance to how we teach our children to be good people and citizens. What age should a person be held accountable as an adult? What bad behavior should a person be held accountable for the rest of their life? These are important questions no matter what is happening with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
Exactly what is Brett Kavanaugh being judged for today? Is he being judged for what he did when he was 17? I’m not judging him for his actions at 17. I believe that 17-year-old children should not be tried as adults in court or held responsible in the same way as an adult. As a father, I have different and much higher behavioral expectations for my son now at 34-years-old than I did for him at 17-years-old. It is scientifically known that our brains may not fully develop until our mid to late 20s. It’s definitely not fully developed in our teens.
If I do not believe in holding teenagers, particularly Black male teens who are targeted by this racist judicial system, to the same standard as adults, I cannot hold a 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh to an adult standard for what he may have done to Christine Ford.
However, I do hold him accountable for what he does today. If these accusations are true, I hold him accountable for lying about it, saying they are not true. Own up to what you have done in the past and you may be forgiven but lying about it says to me you have no regrets or are afraid which means you should not be a judge at all.
If I were a senator and had to vote in the confirmation process, I would vote no. Not because of the sexual assault allegations which still must be investigated, but because I disagree with Kavanaugh about his thoughts on limits of presidential power and because those who have put him forward believe he would judge cases in a direction to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
On executive power, in a September 4th Politico article, Corey Brettschneider wrote:
Far from being a defender of U.S. v. Nixon, during that period Kavanaugh suggested in remarks during a roundtable discussion about executive privilege first reported on by The Associated Press that the case was possibly “wrongly decided” when it held that a president can be subject to a criminal subpoena of information by a special prosecutor. He said, “Nixon took away the power of the president to control information in the executive branch by holding that the courts had power and jurisdiction to order the president to disclose information in response to a subpoena sought by a subordinate executive branch official.”
Any view that holds a president is above the law is a problem and a huge one when held by 1 of the 9 people who are supposed to arbitrate disputes between branches on issues of law. This is unacceptable.
And we really do know where Kavanaugh stands on abortion, or at least we know what his supporters think. Kavanaugh was on a list approved by the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation. Both are anti-abortion organizations who believe he would find cases in favor of reducing access to abortion and overturning Roe vs. Wade. Why should I second guess the people who support him on that issue?
Many of us will judge Kavanaugh one way or the other after both he and Ford tell their stories. If I find Ford compelling and believable I will have to go with her. It’s ironic the operative word here is belief when we are supposed to be looking for what factually happened, not what we believe happened. Belief at best is only somewhat factually based. It is also a feeling.
I do believe there must be evidence to say a person is lying unless you know the truth for yourself, as in you were there. If Ford had not named Kavanaugh in 2012 in a confidential setting with her husband and therapist, I would find it much more difficult, no matter how much I might believe her, to say that Kavanaugh is lying. But Ford’s revelation 6 years ago places many weights on her side when trying to decide who is being truthful. Her testimony will either place more weight to her accusation or take some off the scale of believability. Of course, since I originally wrote this there are more accusations adding more weight to Ford’s story. Things change almost by the hour.
But in the end, Brett Kavanaugh’s brand of justice is not right for this country. Roe vs. Wade should remain the law of the land, women should have access to abortion and no person, not even the president should be above the law. That thinking rationalizes the acceptance of dictators and kings. We certainly don’t need that kind of perspective on the Supreme Court. Especially right now with King wanna be 45 in office.
How to hold or should Brett Kavanaugh be held accountable for behavior when he was 17 is a question we all should be concerned about. Not only because he may well be the next Supreme Court Justice, but also because questions of holding young people accountable are of utmost importance to how we teach our children to be good people and citizens. What age should a person be held accountable as an adult? What bad behavior should a person be held accountable for the rest of their life? These are important questions no matter what is happening with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
Exactly what is Brett Kavanaugh being judged for today? Is he being judged for what he did when he was 17? I’m not judging him for his actions at 17. I believe that 17-year-old children should not be tried as adults in court or held responsible in the same way as an adult. As a father, I have different and much higher behavioral expectations for my son now at 34-years-old than I did for him at 17-years-old. It is scientifically known that our brains may not fully develop until our mid to late 20s. It’s definitely not fully developed in our teens.
If I do not believe in holding teenagers, particularly Black male teens who are targeted by this racist judicial system, to the same standard as adults, I cannot hold a 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh to an adult standard for what he may have done to Christine Ford.
However, I do hold him accountable for what he does today. If these accusations are true, I hold him accountable for lying about it, saying they are not true. Own up to what you have done in the past and you may be forgiven but lying about it says to me you have no regrets or are afraid which means you should not be a judge at all.
If I were a senator and had to vote in the confirmation process, I would vote no. Not because of the sexual assault allegations which still must be investigated, but because I disagree with Kavanaugh about his thoughts on limits of presidential power and because those who have put him forward believe he would judge cases in a direction to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
On executive power, in a September 4th Politico article, Corey Brettschneider wrote:
